Golden: World Trade Center Memorial Must Remain Admission Free

Brooklyn- State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn) is announcing that he will be introducing legislation in the New York State Senate to ensure that the World Trade Center Memorial remains free of an admission fee to all who will come to reflect and remember the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as to pay tribute to the lives taken that morning.

Golden will introduce legislation this week prohibiting the charge of an admission fee following reports last week of the City's intention to charge a fee. The legislation would amend current State Finance law which governs the World Trade Center memorial foundation fund.

Senator Marty Golden stated, "The attacks of September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center, were of such magnitude that they changed history and the world forever. No one citizen of our city, our nation and of this world should be forced to pay an admission fee when coming to Lower Manhattan to pay tribute to those lost and to remember the horrifying attacks which took place on our homeland against our democracy."

Golden continued, "For the families, friends and colleagues of those lost, the prohibition of this admission fee is a step in the right direction in allowing for a proper tribute. Further, there should be no barriers, in this instance a fee, that prevents any one person from paying their respects. Subjecting people to a fee, those seeking to pay tribute to our Nation and our citizens, killed in the name of freedom, is contradictory to this Country's tradition."

Lesli Rice, who’s mother Eileen Mary Rice worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 99th Floor of One World Trade Center stated, "The legacy of my mother and those whom she perished with must live on at no cost for my son’s generation, my grandchildren’s generation and beyond. To place a price tag on such an important memorial is an injustice that will prevent proper remembrance of lives lost and of a Nation which was attacked. Keeping the memorial free is an excellent way to insure that the stories of all lost never stop being told.”

Senator Marty Golden, along with other officials from communities throughout Brooklyn, joined forces and established "Brooklyn Remembers", a committee designed to create and establish a permanent memorial in Brooklyn. This past Fall, a Beacon was dedicated in memory to all those lost in the attacks, and was erected on the American Veteran's Memorial Pier at 69th Street and Shore Road in Bay Ridge.